diff --git a/swift/obj/replicator.py b/swift/obj/replicator.py
index b3df0ce28f..5ee32884ca 100644
--- a/swift/obj/replicator.py
+++ b/swift/obj/replicator.py
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ class ObjectReplicator(Daemon):
                 for node in job['nodes']:
                     kwargs = {}
                     if node['region'] in synced_remote_regions and \
-                            self.conf.get('sync_method') == 'ssync':
+                            self.conf.get('sync_method', 'rsync') == 'ssync':
                         kwargs['remote_check_objs'] = \
                             synced_remote_regions[node['region']]
                     # cand_objs is a list of objects for deletion
@@ -273,11 +273,12 @@ class ObjectReplicator(Daemon):
                 delete_handoff = len(responses) == len(job['nodes']) and \
                     all(responses)
             if delete_handoff:
-                if delete_objs:
+                if (self.conf.get('sync_method', 'rsync') == 'ssync' and
+                        delete_objs is not None):
                     self.logger.info(_("Removing %s objects"),
                                      len(delete_objs))
                     self.delete_handoff_objs(job, delete_objs)
-                elif self.conf.get('sync_method') == 'rsync':
+                else:
                     self.delete_partition(job['path'])
             elif not suffixes:
                 self.delete_partition(job['path'])
diff --git a/test/unit/obj/test_replicator.py b/test/unit/obj/test_replicator.py
index bf1c5bcb52..ab89e49259 100644
--- a/test/unit/obj/test_replicator.py
+++ b/test/unit/obj/test_replicator.py
@@ -117,14 +117,14 @@ def _mock_process(ret):
     object_replicator.subprocess.Popen = orig_process
 
 
-def _create_test_rings(path):
+def _create_test_rings(path, devs=None):
     testgz = os.path.join(path, 'object.ring.gz')
     intended_replica2part2dev_id = [
         [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6],
         [1, 2, 3, 0, 5, 6, 4],
         [2, 3, 0, 1, 6, 4, 5],
     ]
-    intended_devs = [
+    intended_devs = devs or [
         {'id': 0, 'device': 'sda', 'zone': 0,
          'region': 1, 'ip': '127.0.0.0', 'port': 6000},
         {'id': 1, 'device': 'sda', 'zone': 1,
@@ -153,6 +153,8 @@ def _create_test_rings(path):
             ring.RingData(intended_replica2part2dev_id,
                           intended_devs, intended_part_shift),
             f)
+    for policy in POLICIES:
+        policy.object_ring = None  # force reload
     return
 
 
@@ -418,6 +420,81 @@ class TestObjectReplicator(unittest.TestCase):
                 self.replicator.replicate()
             self.assertFalse(os.access(part_path, os.F_OK))
 
+    def test_delete_partition_default_sync_method(self):
+        self.replicator.conf.pop('sync_method')
+        with mock.patch('swift.obj.replicator.http_connect',
+                        mock_http_connect(200)):
+            df = self.df_mgr.get_diskfile('sda', '1', 'a', 'c', 'o')
+            mkdirs(df._datadir)
+            f = open(os.path.join(df._datadir,
+                                  normalize_timestamp(time.time()) + '.data'),
+                     'wb')
+            f.write('1234567890')
+            f.close()
+            ohash = hash_path('a', 'c', 'o')
+            data_dir = ohash[-3:]
+            whole_path_from = os.path.join(self.objects, '1', data_dir)
+            part_path = os.path.join(self.objects, '1')
+            self.assertTrue(os.access(part_path, os.F_OK))
+            ring = self.replicator.get_object_ring(0)
+            nodes = [node for node in
+                     ring.get_part_nodes(1)
+                     if node['ip'] not in _ips()]
+            process_arg_checker = []
+            for node in nodes:
+                rsync_mod = '%s::object/sda/objects/%s' % (node['ip'], 1)
+                process_arg_checker.append(
+                    (0, '', ['rsync', whole_path_from, rsync_mod]))
+            with _mock_process(process_arg_checker):
+                self.replicator.replicate()
+            self.assertFalse(os.access(part_path, os.F_OK))
+
+    def test_delete_partition_ssync_single_region(self):
+        devs = [
+            {'id': 0, 'device': 'sda', 'zone': 0,
+             'region': 1, 'ip': '127.0.0.0', 'port': 6000},
+            {'id': 1, 'device': 'sda', 'zone': 1,
+             'region': 1, 'ip': '127.0.0.1', 'port': 6000},
+            {'id': 2, 'device': 'sda', 'zone': 2,
+             'region': 1, 'ip': '127.0.0.2', 'port': 6000},
+            {'id': 3, 'device': 'sda', 'zone': 4,
+             'region': 1, 'ip': '127.0.0.3', 'port': 6000},
+            {'id': 4, 'device': 'sda', 'zone': 5,
+             'region': 1, 'ip': '127.0.0.4', 'port': 6000},
+            {'id': 5, 'device': 'sda', 'zone': 6,
+             'region': 1, 'ip': 'fe80::202:b3ff:fe1e:8329', 'port': 6000},
+            {'id': 6, 'device': 'sda', 'zone': 7, 'region': 1,
+             'ip': '2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334', 'port': 6000},
+        ]
+        _create_test_rings(self.testdir, devs=devs)
+        self.conf['sync_method'] = 'ssync'
+        self.replicator = object_replicator.ObjectReplicator(self.conf)
+        self.replicator.logger = debug_logger()
+
+        with mock.patch('swift.obj.replicator.http_connect',
+                        mock_http_connect(200)):
+            df = self.df_mgr.get_diskfile('sda', '1', 'a', 'c', 'o')
+            mkdirs(df._datadir)
+            f = open(os.path.join(df._datadir,
+                                  normalize_timestamp(time.time()) + '.data'),
+                     'wb')
+            f.write('1234567890')
+            f.close()
+            ohash = hash_path('a', 'c', 'o')
+            whole_path_from = storage_directory(self.objects, 1, ohash)
+            suffix_dir_path = os.path.dirname(whole_path_from)
+            part_path = os.path.join(self.objects, '1')
+            self.assertTrue(os.access(part_path, os.F_OK))
+
+            def _fake_ssync(node, job, suffixes, **kwargs):
+                return True, set([ohash])
+
+            self.replicator.sync_method = _fake_ssync
+            self.replicator.replicate()
+            self.assertFalse(os.access(whole_path_from, os.F_OK))
+            self.assertFalse(os.access(suffix_dir_path, os.F_OK))
+            self.assertFalse(os.access(part_path, os.F_OK))
+
     def test_delete_partition_1(self):
         with mock.patch('swift.obj.replicator.http_connect',
                         mock_http_connect(200)):